Gardenia of Blooming Desire - Chapter 178: The Birth of an Ugly Baby

Harion was circling around the front door worriedly. He wanted to break the door and accompanied his wife. But Camille said herself that she didn’t want him to look at her crying in pain.

It was not the time to argue, Camille was delivering her baby. Thus, Harion could only wait anxiously. One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, five hours, six hours.

“Sir, you need to rest first,” Sir Douglass, his trusted subordinate advised. Harion constantly circled around the door, bit his lips and fingers anxiously, and jolted whenever he heard Camille screaming in pain.

Because of her womb condition before, delivering this baby was especially risky, it was really the matter of life and death for Camille.

“I’m afraid if something bad happens…”

Sir Douglass knew about his master’s worry, but there was nothing he could do either, “Please believe in Milady Camille.”

Camille was crying and fainting a few times. The pain almost tore her apart. Maybe because this was her first time delivering a baby and due to her current condition, she wasn’t able to deliver a baby like a normal woman.

Everything felt like a torture for her, her body was convulsing in pain, and her stomach felt like it was melting inside. It felt like her womb was pulled from inside. If it was a normal woman, they would definitely give up. But Camille didn’t even care about the pain.

True, she fainted again and again, but she wouldn’t give up. Because her baby needed her.

After eight long hours, a cry of a baby was finally heard. Camille took a deep breath as she almost fainted again. But she couldn’t wait to see her child, “G—Give me my baby…” Camille said weakly.

The midwife trembled with the baby on her hands. She was scared that Duchess Camille would cry because of her son’s appearance.

“What’s wrong?” Camille asked. She had a bad hunch when she saw the midwife’s expression.

“M—Milady, you have a son… but���”

The midwife approached Camille slowly and showed the baby to her. Camille was shocked with her baby’s hideous appearance. He was red, really red. His skin was like a ripe tomato.

He was so small and looked frail, combined with his red skin, he did look hideous. But there were strands of golden hair on his head, and his facial feature was really similar to Camille.

The baby cried loudly, and Camille couldn’t bear to reject him. He took the baby from the midwife and then carried him in her hands. She kissed the baby’s forehead gently, ‘My cute baby, you are finally here. Mom is very happy…’

The door was finally opened, Harion was panicked, yet when he saw Camille holding a baby, his anxiety disappeared and was replaced with enormous joy. He approached Camille, wanting to hug her. But when he saw the appearance of the baby, he halted his step.

“C—Camille, what happened to my son?”

Camille smiled and said, “It’s okay, he is just a bit different. I will let the best doctor treat him, okay?”

Harion was unsure, because his son’s red skin made him look like a little devil. But seeing how genuinely happy Camille was, Harion realized his priority, he nodded and kissed Camille and his son.

“Did you prepare a name for him?”

“No, because I didn’t know if my baby was going to be a boy or a girl,” Harion admitted. “Did you?”

Camille nodded, “Few months ago, I had a dream. A very beautiful dream. I was sitting on a bench in a garden full of flowers. I saw an extremely mesmerizing young man and he handed me a bouquet of flowers. When I asked what his name was, he replied…”

‘My name is Aster. Aster Di Arlingdon.’

“Aster Di Arlingdon…” Harion hummed, then nodded. “It is decided, Aster Di Arlingdon, Young Lord of Duchy Stormhill.”

Camille was satisfied with the name of her son. She kissed Aster’s forehead again and said, “My precious Aster, mom and dad will protect you. We will give you everything, so please, live and survive.”

Camille’s eyes had turned pure golden for the first time. This is the first time she could feel something really deep inside her heart, and a tingling sensation trailing in her body. Whenever she saw her son, she could only see the perfect existence anyone could ever see. Even though her son was really ugly and a bit scary for people around her, for Camille, Aster was perfect.

‘My life is for you, my son. Everything is for you, and you deserve everything.’

***

After some examination, it was determined by the doctor that Aster Di Arlingdon suffered a mysterious illness, which made his skin extremely sensitive to heat. When it was cold, his skin would return pale, like a normal person. But when he was directly exposed to the sun or there was heat around him, his skin would develop rash and then his pores oozed out blood. It was freaky for people.

Aster spent his baby period in the hospital in Dionde City, where he would cry every summer because the pain was unbearable. But Camille patiently pacified him and tried to cool his skin down with any way, soon, Aster developed resistance to cold, he could sleep without any warmer in the winter without getting sick.

For Camille, her health kept deteriorating overtime. Probably because her condition was actually unsuitable for delivering a baby. But she pushed through.

Camille and Aster were inseparable, wherever there was Aster, there was Camille silently watching him. She was constantly paranoid that Aster would get hurt, thus, she tried to stay awake as long as she could to watch her son in his sleep.

Because there was one time when Aster’s skin oozed out blood at night, and he was covered with blood in the morning. It had traumatized Camille so much that she dared not to sleep for too long.

“Can we treat him, doctor?”

The doctor sighed, he checked the condition of this three years old Young Lord, Aster di Arlingdon. He was unsure how to answer that, because aside of his skin condition and fragile health, there was no dangerous condition in him.

As if God had played a trick on this little boy, he was cursed to have this skin condition and his fragile body until his death. The doctor shook his head, “Young Lord’s skin condition… forgive my incapability, but I cannot cure him. He has no other dangerous condition, but his skin…”

“So, he will live like this forever? Trapped inside a room forever?!” Camille was agitated. Imagining her son trapped inside his room forever, unable to go out because of his skin condition, it was like a torment for herself.

“I believe his skin condition will get better as he matures, but for now… yes. He cannot go outside.”

“Is this because of my damaged womb? Did he get his skin condition because of me?!”

“… there is a probability of that, because the poison corrodes the womb slowly. It might be the case.”

Harion knew how heartbroken Camille was currently. Thus, he held her hand and said, “It’s okay, I won’t blame you”

“But… my son, my son is…”

“We will find another way,” Harion pacified her. The doctor was sympathizing for the duke and duchess, because Aster was their only descendant if they didn’t adopt any child.

Three years old Aster was staring at his mom, he was sitting on his mom’s lap. Seeing how sad his mom was, Aster hugged his mom’s stomach and said, “Mama, mama don’t be sad, Aster is sad too.”

Camille wiped the tears on her face and smiled at Aster, “Mom is not sad, mom is just a bit tired. Aster is very kind to mom,” Camille chuckled while pinching his cheek gently, afraid that it would hurt Aster.

Aster stared at his parents and said, “Because Aster loves mama and papa.”

Harion gave a bitter smile at his son, and turned his back. He couldn’t hold his tears whenever he remembered the pain his son had when his body oozed out blood.

Camille hugged his son gently, but there was so much suppressed emotion inside her heart. She felt guilty for her son, because she caused this. She was too careless that she gave her son a defect for life.

Harion brought Camille and Aster back to the Lantern Palace. Aster spent his days inside the palace, unable to leave the hall or corridor, not even an inch. Camille was always watching him, afraid that he would be in danger anytime.

Meanwhile, Harion started getting busy with the new project. He had to leave his wife and son for his work.

Feeling guilty for leaving Camille alone again, he said, “Wife, please take care of the palace. I will let you control everything here, I trust you.”

Camille was a bit downcast, but he knew that Duchy of Stormhill had a promising future. If the duchy could develop even further, then Aster wouldn’t have to worry about anything when Camille and Harion died in the future.

Camille nodded and said, “We will wait for you here, be careful on your way there.”

Harion kissed Camille’s lips and Aster’s forehead, then he left the Lantern Palace again.

Not long after, a maid knocked on the door, “Milady, I have an important letter from the Golden Palace.”

“Come in.”

The maid handed the letter to Camille. Camille was really familiar with the royal wax stamp, she sneered, ‘The stamp of hypocrisy.’

She opened the letter;

– To my dearest daughter, Camille.

It has been years since we met and you always rejected any invitation from me, I missed you a lot. I will come to Lantern Palace in two days. I will come with Charles and Rosalie, my grandson, Aster, he needs to know his cousins. –

Camille grinned, then she laughed sarcastically, “What is he going to do anyway? I haven’t got rid of him because of Aster’s condition.”

“But oh well, I might as well greet him, my dearest Father Emperor.”